How To Bring A Friend And Crush It On Facebook Live
Facebook Live is the most powerful video tool on the planet.
As our society craves authenticity more and more, it doesn’t get more authentic and real-life than using Facebook Live. Recently, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced many updates and new features coming to the platform and one of them was the “bring a friend” feature on Facebook Live.
So, what do you need to know? Unfortunately, I watch my friends and others struggle with leveraging this feature because of the details involved. Let’s unpack them…
#1 - This feature is only available on our personal pages and in groups.
Save yourself some anxiety and frustration. Don’t try this on your business page. If you want to do interview type videos from your business page, use Zoom or my new favorite, StreamYard. “Bring a friend” is only available to us from our personal pages and groups.
#2 - Make sure that you and your guest’s privacy is set to public.
I’ve struggled to get people on my videos in the past if their privacy was set to friends only. Make sure you ask them in advance to change their privacy long enough to do the video, then they can change it back.
#3 - Choose to be vertical or horizontal.
With the updated rollout of this feature, Facebook has adopted the Instagram look for IG Live. You can now hold your phone up and down and your videos will stack on top of each other. Or, you can do it horizontally and you will be in a split-screen feature. If you are going to turn your phone sideways, do it before you hit the blue “go live” button.
#4 - Invite your friend to join the video before you actually start.
The “bring a friend” feature will put a rectangular box in the top right-hand corner of your screen before you start. Tap on the box and invite your friend in advance. Then, when you start the live video, the invite will automatically go out to them. I also ask anyone I interview to go ahead and go to my personal page and refresh it every 30 seconds or so until they see my live video come up. Then open it up. Don’t let them just wait on their newsfeed, because what if the notification doesn’t work the right way?
#5 - Do a private practice run.
If I’m doing an interview with someone who is brand new to this technology, I will do a practice run with them to make sure we get the tech part right. How do you do this? One of the privacy settings is “specific friends.” Choose your friend and then y’all can do a practice run and no one knows about it.
#6 - Be ready to fill 30-60 seconds upfront.
It may take a little bit for your guest to find their way into your live video. So, don’t make the rookie mistake of letting a minute go by and you’ve done nothing with the attention that is being paid to your video. I would suggest addressing your replay audience with this time. You won’t have many live viewers on yet, so go ahead and talk to who’s going to watch this later. This will help them be engaged more and serves as a perfect filler while your guest is making their way in.
#7 - Send them the “one-pager.”
I have a one-page PDF document that I send my guests to ensure that we dot all our I’s and cross all our T’s. If you want it, you can find it HERE. If you have any questions about it, hit me up. I’m happy to help!
#8 - Both of you need to be wearing headphones.
You can get away with this when it’s just you, but when you have someone else when their voice starts coming through your phone speakers, it can create feedback that will cause most of your audience to run for the hills. Having headphones of any kind will keep this distraction from taking place.
#9 - Come up with questions in advance that you want to ask.
I always have questions that I want to ask any guest I speak with. The reason for knowing them in advance is that I can make them feel natural and not forced. As you do more interviews, you’ll learn how to weave the right questions in and out of conversation instead of having abrupt stops for the “next question.” I will also ask those I’m interviewing if they’d like to know the questions in advance. I also have a guide for this as well. You can find it HERE.
#10 - Be prepared for something to go wrong.
It’s social media…it’s unpredictable. You can’t plan for every issue. You just can’t. Go in knowing, something is going to go wrong and you’re going to laugh it off and fight through it. Don’t scramble. Don’t freak out. Let people know the type of leader you are by fighting through it with a smile on your face. And feel free to be transparent, don’t act like it’s not happening. Call it out. Your audience will rally around you when you do.
I hope this helps! Facebook Live and video, in general, is more important than ever! Get out there and make it happen. Let me know how I can help!